The integration of materials with disparate electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties into a single fiber with complex architecture and diverse functionalities presents new opportunities for extending fiber applications in both civil and military areas. The blooming development of materials science in various of fields should play a more powerful impact when it incorporates with fibers. Furthermore, the combination of fiber technique in photonics, sensing, nanofabrication, and energy areas with the traditional textile manufacturing technique would open a number of possibilities. The future of the fibers should be more seamlessly integrated with our daily life. The challenges hindering the thriving development of the advanced functional fibers are the missing bridge between each disciplines (materials, chemistry, electronics, mechanics, photonics) and the powerless bond between academia and industry manufacturing.

In this talk, I would like to introduce my effects on producing advanced functional fibers via the combination of material engineering and structure engineering, including the establishment of new approaches to produce robust infrared fibers and the fabrication of structured spherical micro/nano-sized particles based on the in-fiber instability of materials. Furthermore, I will briefly introduce the explorations in research community on the integration of microscale semiconductor devices into a fiber fashion, the manufacturing of fiber-type energy storage cable, and the production of thermal conductive fibers for thermal transportation.

报告人简介：

Dr. Tao received his B. Eng. (2006), M.Sc. (2009), and Ph.D. (2014) in optics/optoelectronic from Shandong University, Fudan University, and the University of Central Florida, respectively. He was a visiting scholar at Chinese Academy of Science (2007-2008), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012) and an infrared material engineer at LightPath Technologies (2012-2013). He is a Sr. Research Scientist at CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics since 2014. He has also served as referee for 20+ journals in optics, physics, chemistry, and materials. He has been awarded several scholarships/honors from Optical Society of America (OSA), the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE), and the American Ceramic Society (ACerS), and was awarded the Extraordinary Potential Prize winner of Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (2013). He has years of research experience in optical sciences and engineering in academia, industry, and government institutes with expertise in the areas of infrared material, infrared fiber, in-fiber nano-fabrication, and advanced functional fibers and textiles. He has also been the session chair of multiple international conferences. He will serve as the organizer and session chair of MRS Spring 2017 (Symposium SM2: Advanced multifunctional fibers and textiles) at Phoenix, AZ, USA and the organizer and session chair of the conference of Materials Science and Technology 2017 (Symposium: Glass Composites) at Pittsburg, PA, USA. Dr. Tao is also the cofounder of Lambda Photonics LLC, a startup company which developed out of his Ph.D. work.